Godongwana washes his hands of the SAA/Takatso deal
6 June 2022
The DA will submit a parliamentary question to Enoch Godongwana, the Minister of Finance, to obtain a definitive reply as to whether the concerns relating to SAA/Takatso Consortium agreement that were raised by National Treasury (NT) have been dealt with to the satisfaction of NT.
On the 2nd of June 2022 Enoch Godongwana, the Minister of Finance, signed a reply to my request of the 22nd of March 2022 for a copy of the agreement entered into between the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) and the Takatso consortium as well as the concerns raised by National Treasury (NT) relating to certain terms and conditions contained therein.
In his reply (see here), by referring me to the DPE, Enoch Godongwana has effectively washed his hands of any responsibility for the SAA/Takatso agreement and the NT concerns with certain terms and conditions.
Pravin Gordhan and the DPE have consistently refused to provide a copy of the SAA/Takataso Consortium agreement and so it is trite for Enoch Godongwana, the Minister of Finance, to refer me to the DPE.
It took a full two and a half months for Minister Godongwana to provide this short non-response to me. This would clearly seem to be an attempt to delay transparency with the SAA/Takatso deal that has been dealt with in a completely secret and thus possibly not in the best interests of all South Africans.
This lack of transparency has a particularly negative impact on desperately poor people who have over the past three years been deprived of the benefits of the R14.7billion bailouts paid to SAA that seemingly continues to make massive losses. These losses will apparently result in yet a further taxpayer bailout for SAA to be contained in the Medium-Term Budget adjustments in October 2022.
Enoch Godongwana states that he was not responsible for the SAA/Takatso agreement and that once NT had raised its concerns with the DPE there was no further role for him or NT to play. As Godongwana makes no mention of Pravin Gordhan and the DPE having addressed the concerns raised by NT it would seem to indicate that Minister Godongwana and NT remain concerned with the SAA/Takatso agreement.
Issued by Alf Lees, DA Member of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, 6 June 2022
